Rules Roundup 2019-08-09

Questions

• What is my build total for stars if I play both Soundwave - Communications, Blaster - Communications, and one Mini-Cassette. Do both "Your Starting Star Limit" abilities trigger?
  27 Stars. Both abilities would apply.
• How do Soundwave and Blaster decide who gets to start with the Mini-Cassette under them, for both start of game and Recover Cassette?
  You choose where the Mini-Cassette goes.
• But what kind of music competition do they compete in?
  Dueling Banjos, clearly.
• Since I'm not privy to what happens between two fictional characters in a hypothetical situation, do I just choose who the Mini-Cassette goes under which deployer?
  Yes, you choose.
• Does "outside the game" refer to the sideboard? The other question is if I play Brainstorm with Wave 3 Skywarp on the field, how do I proceed if I have 2 Defensive Formations at hand? Do I play the 1st Defensive Formation, draw a card and then play the 2nd Defensive Formation to draw a 2nd card? Or do I play the 1st defensive formation, then the 2nd, and then draw the 2 cards?
  It can refer to your sideboard, however your “outside the game” cards do not have to be in your sideboard to be considered detectable by the game.
  In resolving the Brainstorm, you will play both Defensive Formations. Skywarp’s ability will trigger for each of them, but you won’t draw cards for the ability until you’ve finished resolving the Brainstorm.

  Later rules for competitive play required "outside the game" battle cards to be in your sideboard.
• I play a Bolster, and attack with my specialist. Turn ends. Opponent attacks my defender who is a specialist. I play bolster then I play Multi-Mission Gear, then for the action you play Peace Through Tyranny, KO’ing the specialist defender, effectively ending the attack with no flips.
  Do you get an extra turn, then a normal turn?
  You take your extra turn, then your normal turn. You can’t take any additional turns.
• Does Micro Capacitor work on Thrust's ability? Probable not but I want to make sure.
  You are correct. It does not!
• When defending I reveal the secret action Bolster. I then proceed to play Multi-Mission Gear to play Brainstorm, in turn playing Battlefield Report and Defensive Formation. As these 2 have the same trigger condition as Bolster, am I able to reveal them now that Bolster has finished resolving?
  In this scenario, it is too late to reveal them.
• If Reclaim is the last card in your deck and Major Shockwave is in Bot mode, when he uses his continuous effect to play the top Secret Action/Decepticon card of your deck as if it were in your hand, will Reclaim resolve its effect first and put the selected upgrade on top of the deck, or will the deck need to be shuffled immediately since there zero cards left in the main deck?
  Your deck will need to be shuffled immediately in this scenario. Reclaim will not be able to find an upgrade and will have no further effect. Major Shockwave will stand around looking confused.
• If a Battle Master or Weaponizer is in the KO Pile, and the match runs to time and damage on all characters is assessed, should they count their damage for that total, or are they simply an upgrade with no damage on them?
  They are an upgrade with no damage on them.

  This FAQ item refers to a form of tie-breaker from November 2019 tournament rules prior to November 2019. It is no longer relevant.
• If I KO my opponent’s Battle Master and it has a Dismantling Claw on it, and it scraps my Dismantling Claw, I think my Dismantling Claw would therefore scrap the newly applied Battle Master due to he is now a weapon on my opponents bot. Is that correct?
  That is correct.
• Can you transform an already tapped character in the field? (For example .. I want to play Rapid Conversion on Barrage who is tapped). If yes, will this still trigger his ability? (He can give another character +2 Pierce when he is flipped to Bot mode.)
  Yes and yes!
• If I play a Battering Ram on to a truck and I’m battling Elita-1 in bot mode, and I do enough damage to KO her, would her ability still work or would she be flipped into her alt mode and not get her abilities?
  Elita-1 will be KO’d first. When Battering Ram’s ability resolves, Elita-1 will already be in the KO area and therefore cannot be effected by Battering Ram.
• Player plays Fully Loadout on Megatron - Living Weapon. Does Megatron have the ability to place three weapons in Bot Mode due to his ability?
  No. Full Loadout specifically says “A weapon, an armor, and a utility”. Megatron – Living Weapon only changes what can be put into his slots.
• Can "Interpret the Airwaves be placed in a deck without Blaster and be used (not played) only for the Pips?
  Yes, it can.
• Private Sideswipe - Does his effect apply twice if you can somehow manage to get him to flip to car mode, back to bot mode to car mode again?
  Yes. If you can pull it off, that would work.
• Would Cornered work on a Battle Master causing it to flip to its upgrade side? If yes, what would happen to the upgrade?
  No, you can’t flip a Battle Master while it’s on the battlefield.
• I have run into a situation where my deck had no cards and no discard pile to shuffle in. We ruled it as when I attacked or defended, I had no cards to flip so I added 0 to my attack and defense. We were wondering if this would be a proper ruling.
  If your deck and scrap pile are empty, you don't flip any cards and the game proceeds.
• Second, for the card Inverted. It says that each orange pip you flip becomes a blue pip and vice versa. For cards that rely on you flipping a certain color pip, do the pips flipped count as what they are, or the inverted color?
  For Inverted, there's no sequence when the icon changes from one color to another. They are changed from the moment Inverted is played and stay so as long as Inverted is on the character.